Theresa Villiers to call for focus on paramilitaries

The Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers is to call for "proportionate" focus on wrongdoing by republicans and loyalists rather than the police as part of future measures to heal divisions over the conflict.

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In a speech today, Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers is expected to call for a focus on paramilitaries rather than the police as part of future measures to heal divisions over the conflict. She is expected to say:

At least with a new process, agreed by Northern Ireland's political leaders, there is scope to write in from the start the need for an objective balance and with proper weight and a proportionate focus on the wrongdoing of paramilitaries...rather than the almost exclusive concentration on the activities of the state which characterises so many of the processes currently under way.

Many processes for addressing the legacy of the past - during which thousands were killed or maimed amid 30 years of bombings and shootings - have concentrated on the activities of security forces, Theresa Villiers will argue, rather than paramilitaries who were responsible for most cases.

The devolved ministerial Executive at Stormont is spending more than £30 million a year on historical matters, with police trawling hundreds of thousands of documents, in part to investigate shootings carried out by former officers or soldiers.